"I tried to tell a simple story about droughts that happen to people, and about faith."- N. Richard Nash writing about The Rainmaker

“Dreams and romanticism are necessary to bring fulfillment into our lives." – lyricist Tom Jones who co-wrote 110 IN THE SHADE (music Harvey Schmidt and book by Nash)based on The Rainmaker

"My father wrote most about the difficulty of living in the tension between illusion and reality, which makes a lot of sense, coming from a dreamer who came of age in the Great Depression. THE RAINMAKER was an archetypal work in which he put the problem most directly and poignantly. That's why it's lasted so long." - Jennifer Nash Flower, Ph.D., one of Nash's daughter

​The other daughter, Amanda, who lives in Massachusetts, came to see the show on August 1, and brought 4 cousins with her! They all loved the show and we were so glad they came!

It's 1930, out West, during the Depression, with no hope of rain in site. Enter Starbuck, who claims he can make it rain for $100. There are those who believe he can do it - and those who don’t. And then there’s Lizzie, who wants so much to believe in anything – especially herself.

This comedy-drama Western started out as a one-act 1953 production for Philco Television Playhouse. ​The full two-act version was a smash hit on Broadway in 1954, starring Geraldine Page and Darrin McGavin, It has been translated into over 40 languages and is still regularly performed in theaters throughout the U.S. and around the world. A 1956 film version (also written by Nash) starred Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster. There was a 1982 full-length TV production, a 1999 Broadway revival starring Jayne Atkinson and Woody Harrelson, and a 2007 Broadway revival of 110 in the Shade, that was nominated for a Tony, starring Audra McDonald.​

MEET THE ACTORS, FIGHT DIRECTOR and PLAYWRIGHT

​Veronique Hurley (Lizzie) is thrilled to return to ELTC! The Rainmaker is a beautiful play. She can’t wait to bring Lizzie to life. Off Broadway Theatre Credits include: The Tempest,As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Hunting and Gathering (The Glass Eye), Women are crazy because men are Assholes (Cherry Lane Theatre), Regional Credits Include: Noises Off, To Kill A Mockingbird, Christmas Carol, (The Hartford Stage Company) The Straight Marriage Plays, Moon Over Buffalo (Cape May Stage), Biography, Silent Sky (East Lynne Theater) Around the World in 80 Days ​(won best ensemble, Broadwayworld.com), Bunnicula and Charlotte's Web (Playhouse on Park). Veronique would like to dedicate this performance to her Aunt Gayle Hurley.

Mat Labotka (File) An alum of Chicago’s Second City Conservatory and Marquette University, Mat is both classically trained and freshly comedic. New York credits include Henry in The King’s Face, Albert in Relativity of Love (Break A Leg), Victor in The Star and The Fire (90 Square Arts). Chicago credits include Metropolis Theatre, Circle Theatre, Second City, iO Chicago, Underground Lounge. Mat also performs in commercials, improv and stand-up comedy. matlabotka.com

Mark Edward Lang (Noah) Theater and corporate training events have taken him to 35 U.S. states and around the world; including trips to Malaysia, Tanzania, Copenhagen and Istanbul. Favorite roles include Alfred Lunt in the biographical drama Lunt and Fontanne: The Celestials of Broadway (FringeNYC and Classic Theatre of San Antonio; also playwright), Captain Robert Scott in Terra Nova and Jack in The Importance of Being Earnest (Hilton Head Playhouse), The Actor in ELTC’s The Guardsman (with wife Alison J. Murphy), seven roles in the Irish comedy Stones in his Pockets (Open Stage of Harrisburg), Kosti in Welcome Home Marian Anderson (Off-Broadway and tour); and ELTC’s Ah, Wilderness!, Biography, Zorro!, Christopher Bean, The Poe Mysteries, Dulcy, Butter and Egg Man, Why Marry?, The New York Idea, Voice of the City, The Dictator (2001), Four by Four and You and I (Best Actor Jacoby Award, 2007). He’s performed Shakespeare, Molière and new works in NYC and on tour; as well as theater workshops and directing, including ELTC’s Anna Christie. Graduate of Vassar College. Member AEA, SAG-AFTRA.

​Jeff Sharkey (Sheriff) made his ELTC debut in Arsenic and Old Lace. Recent TV/Film credits include roles on the Investigation Discovery Channel's series True Crime with Aphrodite Jonesep, Evil Lives Here, and Scene of the Crime with Tony Harris. He played the Father the film NY84. He appeared in theatrical productions throughout South Jersey including Max in Sound of Music with Margate Players, and has been involved in the Cape May theater scene for the past 10 years. Since 2015, he has been member of the company at Elaine's Dinner Theater, specializing in multiple comedic improvisational roles. He's performed with the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities in their productions of Victorian Comedy Murder Mysteries, and for the Sherlock Holmes Weekends. Training: Studio 353/TAPNYC, Weist Barron Ryan and Heery Casting. He honed his early comedic skills by goofing off in school and was voted Class Clown in the 6th grade at Valley View Middle School, Watchung, NJ.

Jeffrey Smith (Jim) is a Brooklyn-based actor and musician making his professional theater debut with East Lynne. Past roles include Michael in an award-winning production of The Pillowman and Schmendiman in Picasso at the Lapin Agile while in college, and he has also directed two short student films, including the silent comedy A Walk in the Country. He holds a BA in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and has completed the Summer Training Congress and Shakespeare Intensive at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.

﻿John Cameron Weber (HC) has performed for ELTC, in Biography, Within the Law, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, It Pays To Advertise, The World of Dorothy Parker, He and She, The Dictator, and The Butter and Egg Man. He has appeared in commercials and soaps, various regional theaters and National (Damn Yankees, 1776) and European (West Side Story, Guys and Dolls) tours. His favorite roles? Abel Frake (State Fair), Inspector Hubbard (Dial M for Murder) and the Gangsters in Kiss Me Kate. He also enjoyed sinking on the Titanic several times. Member AEA and SAG-AFTRA

﻿Joseph Travers (Fight Director) Joe was the fight director for ELTC's Zorro! and Within the Law. He also served as fight director for the Broadway production of Bronx Bombers, the Off-Broadway premier of The View Upstairs, and the Regional premier of Robin and Clark’s musical adaptation of Treasure Island. Off-Broadway: Primary Stages (While I Yet Live), Playwrights Horizons (Essential Self – Defense, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Blue Door, Chinese Friends), New York Theatre Workshop (Too Much Memory). Regional: Capital Repertory Company (Shakespeare in Love), Fulton Theatre (Treasure Island), Virginia Shakespeare Festival (Romeo and Juliet, Cymbeline), New Repertory Theatre (Bakersfield Mist), Wellfleet Harbor Actor Theatre (The Pillowman). Joe was stunt coordinator for the award-winning film The Depths (starring Michael Rispoli) and for Fox-Searchlight’s Lifted. He also served as sword master and stunt coordinator for the upcoming fantasy feature Tower of Silence. Joe holds the rank of Certified Fight Director with both the Society of American Fight Directors and Fight Directors Canada. Proud member of SDC.

N. Richard Nash (playwright) was born Nathanial Richard Nusbaum on June 8, 1913 in Philadelphia, the youngest of six and the only son of Sael Leonard and Jenny (Singer) Nusbaum. At age seventeen he entered the University of Pennsylvania on a full scholarship and became president of the Pennsylvania Players, a member of the debating team, and directed plays at Bryn Mawr. In 1934 he received a B.A. with honors in English and Philosophy. After graduation, he taught and directed plays at Harcum Junior College, served as Director of Theater at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges, and published two books on philosophy: The Athenian Spirit and The Wounds of Sparta. During his free time Nash acted and directed for several community theaters. Nash's first published play, So Wonderful, premiered in 1937 at the Harcum Experimental Theatre in Bryn Mawr, under his direction. In 1940, his Parting at Imsdorf won the “Maxwell Anderson Verse Drama Award,” given by Stanford University, edging out an entry from Tennessee Williams. The play was also included in Margaret Mayorga's The Best One Act Plays of 1940. In 1946, his play about Shakespeare, Second Best Bed, opened on Broadway. The Young and Fair, based on his experiences as a college teacher, was produced in New York in 1948 and in England in 1949. Actor James Dean had his Broadway debut in Nash's See the Jaguar in 1952. Short-lived on Broadway, it still won the International Drama Award in Cannes and the Prague Award. His first major success was The Rainmaker, a tribute to his older sister Mae, who served as the model for its heroine, Lizzie Curry. The Rainmakeropened at the Cort Theatre on Broadway on October 28, 1954, with Geraldine Page as Lizzie. Eva Marie Saint, Nancy Marchand, Tuesday Weld, Sally Field, and Jane Atkinson are among the actresses who have also performed the role. The Rainmaker was later made into a film starring Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster, and as a Broadway musical, 110 in the Shade, for which Nash wrote the book with Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones providing music and lyrics. Other Nash Broadway successes included Girls of Summer (1956) and Handful of Fire (1958). Nash wrote the book for two other Broadway musicals: Wildcat in 1960 with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, and The Happy Time in 1968, with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. Both were fraught with problems. Lucille Ball helped to fund Wildcat, with herself as the star, at age 48, when Nash’s character was originally 20 years younger. This was Ball’s only Broadway show. The Happy Time, loosely based on a 1950 Broadway hit by Samuel A. Taylor, was the first Broadway musical to lose a million dollars. It was nominated, however, for a Tony Award for Best Musical. Nash wrote and adapted numerous screenplays, including Nora Prentiss (1947), Dear Wife (1949), The Rainmaker (1956), and Porgy and Bess (1959). He also worked as a “script doctor,” primarily for David Merrick for Broadway shows, and MGM’s Samuel Goldwyn when it came to films. Goldwyn is known to have said to Nash about a screenplay, “It's perfect! Now come and fix it.” For television, Nash wrote scripts for The U.S. Steel Hour, General Electric Theater, Television Playhouse, Philco Playhouse, and Theatre Guild of the Air. In 1954, television producer Fred Coe and writers Nash, Robert Alan Aurthur, Paddy Chayefsky, Horton Foote, Tad Mosel, and David Shaw founded Playwrights '54. This group produced six half-hour television shows a year, written by each writer, guaranteeing each one at least $12,000 annual income. In his later years, Nash wrote novels, including two “New York Times” bestsellers, East Wind, Rain about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and The Last Magic, and Dramatic Theory for the Actor. He also wrote several books under the name John Roc. He worked as a college lecturer and wrote articles for periodicals and newspapers. Nash married three times: Helena Taylor, Janice Rule, and Katherine Copeland. He died on December 11, 2000 in New York City, at the age of 87.

ELTC's programs are made possible in part through funding from The NJ State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of The National Endowment for the Arts, The NJ Department of State, Division of Travel and Tourism, the generosity of our Season Partners, and the generosity of many patrons.